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Tuesday, May 23, 2006

You know you're seriously obsessed when...

...you dream about knitting -- or, more specifically, making a mistake in your knitting and having to frog. Last night I had a dream that I was finally working on Forecast (unfortunately I did not happen to notice what size needles I was using to knit it or if I happened to be getting gauge) and that I kept forgetting to work the cables and had to keep frogging back and starting over. Then my alarm clock went off. Very weird. Must have been influenced by having to tink back about three rows on my reverse Pomatomus the other night.

Speaking of which, le voila, fresh off the needles (I'm cheating a bit here because I haven't even woven in the ends yet):

Aside from the obvious difference in fiber and color, you'll notice that the left sock has a shorter leg than the right sock. That's because I was an idiot and didn't read the very beginning of the pattern (i.e., before the chart) when I started and was thinking I needed to do 20 rows of ribbing. It was supposed to be 10 rows. But by the time I discovered my mistake, I was too anxious to get on to the patterning to rib back, and I figured I'd just tell eveyone it was a planned mod. And now of course I've ruined that plan because I've just told you the truth. Oh well, we all make mistakes. At least I cast on the correct number of stitches, and as you can see, the pattern reversal was successful. I still have some minor tweaking to do in the pattern rewrite, for which I'll have to knit another sock, but I'll be sure to share that info with all the Pomatomus knitters out there when I'm satisfied.My travel knitting sock (at right) is almost done, but alas, I think it may be too small. I think I'm becoming a tighter knitter, because I'm using the size needles the pattern calls for (US 1) but I think I'd really need a US 2 to make them the correct size. I am going to finish it anyway and hope that a little bath makes the wool relax a bit. They'll be snug, but just maybe they'll work. In this case I think I must have had some amazing foresight, because when I ordered all that sock yarn from Knit Picks a while back I ordered three balls of each color. So even if I can't manage to make this one work, I've still got a pair's worth of yarn left over.

I still haven't started Forecast, in part because I haven't decided what to do in terms of needles. I've been wondering if I should knit another swatch with US 9 needles. I'm still mystified regarding what is going on with gauge. I am using Cascase 220; the pattern calls for Cascade Tweed. Can the two yarns really be that different in terms of gauge? Moreover, why is is that I'm getting the exact same stitch count with two different sized needles? Grrr, the maths. This is my least favorite part of knitting -- next to the fact that I can't do it all day and/or for money.

On the agenda this evening is to start the first Pomatomus for my mom. I'm hoping to get a decent amount done before we hit the road on Friday, even though I know I'll have many good hours of car knitting, If I'm really on top of things, I think it might even be possible to finish the pair by the end of the holiday weekend (you know, so my mom can have her wool socks right when the weather starts getting seasonal again). I also want to have something pretty to pull out of my purse to show the Jeopardy! people. Maybe I'll even show them how I reversed the pattern and they'll be so awed by my creativity and intelligence that they'll want to put me on the air right away so I can win lots of yarn money. Okay, maybe not. But at least I can show it off at Rosie's where I bought my first sock pattern and sock yarn, way back when.

Finally, a little shot I forgot to post last time. The answer: this is the adorable herb growing on top of SJ's bookshelf.